


A Universe of Three

by solipsist



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: AU, oneshot/fairly short, surreal?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24426652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solipsist/pseuds/solipsist
Summary: valve might not think about the implications of chell living with robots her entire life and never leaving the lab but i will.
Kudos: 27





	A Universe of Three

The universe has never shown her a word to describe this feeling. 

If she’s asked how she felt the day she came across the painting on concrete walls, she will be as honest as she can and say it’s the same violation Chell feels finding sludge underneath her clothes after a test chamber. 

In the few instances she’s caught herself in portals and reflections in the window, Chell knows her cheeks are not rose-pink, her face is not angular, her skin darker. The Chell with closed eyes is someone’s wish. 

Chell lives in a universe of three. And the universe of three did not wish for a better Chell.  
The world is a metal dome. The stars of turrets glitter in the darkness of a thousand assembly lines. All of humanity, all of history and lore is a woman and an orb. And the God of the universe of three sits in her chamber, cooly reading off insults to her creations. 

She sometimes wishes the universe of three would expand. 

There’s something new at the edges of her universe. The day before she skipped testing to chase after Wheatley, and the day before the universe did expand an inch. 

Flowers had been found growing in the old parking lot. They were unlike anything she had seen before, they were unlike anything the creator of her universe - unlike anything GLADOS had to show for herself. For a moment, there was a universe of four. 

Herself, Wheatley, GLADOS.

The GLADOS who made the flowers. 

Chell brought that edge of the new universe closer by sliding the stem of the flower through Wheatley’s fan. She would not let this new inch go unnoticed. 

But now there is a universe of five. 

Herself, Wheatley, GLADOS.

The GLADOS who made the flowers. 

The one who wished for a better Chell.

This new inch sticks to her skin like sludge. There is no showering it off, there can only be revulsion and violation. And today, Chell wishes the universe would close in and render the fourth into nonbeing. The wish of the mysterious fourth is destroyed with white paint. It’s as close as she can get to the power of extinction. 

The building hums quietly on. Security cameras follow her path. Wheatley catches up to her, chattering to himself about an uneventful day and events so mundane neither one will remember them (and so Wheatley’s day will no longer exist in time) and the flower has only slightly drooped. 

A panel opens. The two sit outside on the dome of their world.

She can’t call stargazing a hobby. She doesn’t do anything worthwhile with it. In fact, GLADOS would call it a waste of time. She lies there, under the stars, cigarette in her mouth, counting dots in the sky. It’s a waste of time. Maybe the GLADOS inside of her would be more forgiving if she brings something to read, but Chell never does. She only counts. 

Wheatley informs her in cities and towns, light pollution is so bad that the stars are invisible from the ground. Some people will never get the chance to see the Milky Way, they will never see Venus, they will never point out faces in the moon. 

Would one flame at the end of a cigarette make the sky that much lighter?

If she smokes every day for the rest of her life, will the sky one day turn into a colorless blanket wrapping the world? How far can Chell go into the new inches of the universe? How much can Chell affect the new inches of the universe?  
Has the universe shrunk again when she plucked the flower? Did it fold in on itself when Wheatley darts through the laboratory with the flower in his fan?

And what of GLADOS? If she creates the universe they live in, who creates GLADOS? The same who creates flowers? Can Chell create like GLADOS? Can Chell destroy like GLADOS? Has Chell destroyed like GLADOS? Is the fourth no longer because of her and white paint?

Who is Chell?

She can place herself at the center of the universe, she can place herself on top of the universe. But nowhere she goes will tell her who and what she is. The universe never provided a statistic of the amount of power she carries. 

Wheatley shakes back into life, breaking off Chell’s thoughts when he tells her to make a wish on a falling star.

Chell wishes for some cake.


End file.
